DETROIT – A small maker of autonomous car techniques may very well be in sizzling water with U.S. freeway security regulators over how a lot time elapsed earlier than it reported the crash of one in all its take a look at autos final fall.
The Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration says in paperwork launched Monday that it is investigating Pony.ai’s reporting of an Oct. 28 crash in Fremont, California, about two weeks after it occurred.
A software program error precipitated one of many firm’s autonomous take a look at autos to crash right into a median street signal. Recall paperwork filed by the corporate say there have been no accidents or different property injury.
The company says it opened the investigation to see whether or not Pony.ai complied with reporting necessities beneath a common order issued final June to all producers testing autonomous autos, or these with driver-assist techniques that want human supervision.
The order to requires reporting of crashes involving accidents, air bag deployment or a car being towed away inside sooner or later of getting discover of a crash. Producers should report lesser crashes involving autonomous autos on the fifteenth day of the month following the crash.
NHTSA investigation paperwork say Pony.ai reported the October crash on Nov. 12, and filed additional stories on Nov. 17 and 29, and one other in December. It isn’t clear if the airbags inflated or if the take a look at car was towed.
Pony.ai, which is predicated in Fremont, stated in a ready assertion that it made a good-faith effort to adjust to NHTSA necessities and has been cooperating with the company. The corporate stated it mounted the software program the day after the crash, and that it solely affected three of the 200 autos in its fleet.
NHTSA stated in paperwork that the investigation was opened to find out if the corporate complied with the order “with respect to each the timeliness and accuracy of its stories concerning the Oct. 28, 2021 crash.”
The company is utilizing the order to gather knowledge on autonomous and partially automated autos because it considers drafting laws.
Toyota’s Sienna minivans, retrofitted with Aurora’s self-driving system, might be examined on highways and suburban streets within the Dallas-Fort-Price space, with the operation together with journeys enroute to an airport.
